


Dealing with Death

by ShadeCrawler



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Death, Dead Body, Death!Virgil Sanders, Family Member Death, Gang Violence, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hopeful Ending, Life!Logan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-24 19:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22022947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeCrawler/pseuds/ShadeCrawler
Summary: Roman wakes up to see a scrawny teen leaning over him who claims to be Death. His day just gets weirder from there.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 11
Kudos: 109





	Dealing with Death

Roman opened up his eyes to see a scrawny teen leaning over him.

"Sup?"

Roman stared at the teen for a long moment before arching his brow. "Uhhh, hi? Who are- what am I doing on the ground?" He propped himself up on his elbows and rubbed at his eyes. Roman tried to look around to see where he was at but the teen quickly shifted so Roman couldn't see to the left of him. "What's going on?"

The teen shrugged before sticking his hands in his pockets. He was shortish, looked to be Indian and somehow he looked both very normal and very otherworldly. He looked like one of those hipsters at Roman's old high school with stylish shredded jeans, a black and purple patch hoddie that he was practically swimming in, and purple headphones hanging around his neck. He had bright purple bangs that ended at the tip in a startling white. And when he pinned Roman with his black eyes, Roman felt like he was looking into pools of darkness. "What do you think's going on?"

Roman gave the teen a confused frown. "Ahh... I'm not sure. I was going to an audition," he shook his head and stumbled to his feet, the teen watching him carefully like he was afraid he'd have to catch him. "Why am I telling you this," Roman muttered. "I need to get going. Gotta get to the Prince Eric auditions." He stumbled and found himself being held up by the teen, surprisingly easy too.

"Easy, easy," the teen muttered as he pushed Roman back on his feet. He looked Roman over and sighed. "Um, what do you remember?"

"That I was going to an audition," Roman repeated slowly. Jeez, who the hell even was this kid? Should he find a parent before leaving, maybe an older sibling? He almost wanted to talk to a police officer but seeing as he was white and this kid wasn't and with the news reports he had heard recently... that probably wasn't the best idea. "Look, Kid, I really need to get going."

The teen sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, you're not going to that audition, man." He huffed and muttered something that Roman couldn't quite make out before moving to the side. And suddenly it was like the curtains parted and Roman could see exactly what the teen was hiding behind him.

Lying on the ground in a pool of dark blood was... it  **_ wasn't _ ** Roman, Roman decided immediately. That was not him, no way. He was standing here next to this weird kid, not lying down in the middle of an alley with his head, with his head, oh God, his head was-

"And, let's look away from that mess," the teen muttered. He grabbed Roman's arm and forced him to start walking away from the body,  _ Roman's _ body. 

Roman swallowed and turned his head so he was looking away from his- from the body. Because that couldn't be his body, no way. "That's a dead body."

"Yeah," the teen sighed. "Your dead body to be specific."

"No," Roman quickly cut in, pointing at him. "No, no, no. I am alive! I am alive, not dead. I'm heading to an audition and then I'm going to go meet up with my brothers. I am not lying there," he hissed, pointing back at the body, "with my head caved in!"

"You are," the teen said, a smile playing at his lips. He looked like he had had this conversation so many times and that Roman was just another person that he had to deal with. "Sorry, Princey. You're dead."

You're dead. Two little words that seemed to echo in Roman's mind. Dead, dead, you're dead. No audition for you, no brothers for you. You're just  _ dead _ . Suddenly, it was all too much and he jerked away from the teen with a snarl. "No, I'm not!"

Roman trembled and glared at the teen who just looked back at him with an almost bored expression on his face. "I'm not dead," he snapped, chest heaving with heavy, angry breaths. "I can't be-"

"But you are," the teen said bluntly. He sighed and shrugged. "Sorry, Princey, but it's the way things are. Now, if you'll just come with me we can discuss your options."

Roman was already running before the teen had finished the sentence.

He ran out of the slums, feet pounding on the ground. No one seemed to see him, not even when Roman ran straight into oncoming traffic. He ran down the street, hoping that he'd be able to outrun the creepy kid and the bloody body and the two words that were tattooed into his mind.

Roman had been running for several minutes when he stopped, leaning against a streetlamp with a large grin on his face. He laughed and tilted his head back. Perfect, perfect, he had lost... why was he looking up at a pair of combat boots?

"Gah!" He stumbled away, falling down on his butt and looking up at the weird teen, the exact same teen from before too, balancing on the top of the street lamp in a crouch with a smirk on his face. 

The teen snickered and jumped down with the grace of a cat, stalking forward and offering Roman a hand. "Can't outrun Death, Princey. Nice try though."

Roman swallowed and hesitantly took the teen's hand. "And that's who you are? Death?" He yelped when he was easily pulled up by the small teenager.

"Sure am. You can call me Virgil though." Virgil wrinkled his nose and smirked with a shrug. "Death is way too Emo, even for me. It's my official title though. So, talking time? Options?"

Dread pooled in Roman's gut and he pulled his hand away from Virgil. "No," he muttered, shaking his head. "No, I, there has to be a way to change this."

"So we're at that stage then," Virgil muttered softly. He sighed and shook his head. "Well, we could talk to The Lives but I know what they're gonna say-"

Roman grabbed Virgil's shoulder and grinned. "Yes, yes, let's go talk to them!" There was a way back, he knew that there'd be a way back! He paused and furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "Wait,  **_ The Lives _ ** ? As in more than one? Who are they?"

Virgil just grinned, snapped his fingers, and everything went black.

* * *

It had been like going down the water slide at the old water park Patton, Roman's older brother, used to take him and Remus to. Roman felt like he was being dropped through a tube and within a second he was off the busy streets of the city and in a lobby of an office building, the smell of jam lingering in the air. 

"Here we are. Hopefully they'll both be in but you can never know with these two."

Roman whirled around to find Virgil a step behind him, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Do you have to do that," he hissed, pulling at his tie nervously.

Virgil's smirk widened and he shrugged. "Sure do, Princey. Now c'mon. L's usually in a bad mood during this time of day, especially since I was just here literally a few seconds ago with someone else. And I'm already bothering him with other people-"

"Wait, what? But you're here," Roman said in confusion, waving his hand between the two of them. "You're with me."

"What, you think I'm giving you my undivided attention? I'm  **_ Death _ ** and a lot of people die in a day, hell, in a second. I'm dealing with millions of people just like you right now, trying to bargain for just a few more years. I'm sitting in hospital rooms waiting for people with chronic illnesses to slip away, I'm holding the hands of soldiers and trying to give them comfort as they cough up blood, I've got babies in my arms and singing to them while I guide them to the Afterlife. I got a busy job, kid. I can't afford to focus my entire attention on just one person."

Roman stared at Virgil with wide eyes and suddenly saw him in a new light. There was this old presence about him that was masked by his young appearance as if he had been doing this for so long that there was very little he hadn't seen. "You're... old, aren't you?"

"Older than you," Virgil shot at him. "Probably older than the Lives too but that's up for debate. The three of us aren't completely sure about that but it doesn't really matter." Virgil pulled Roman into an elevator and pushed a button for the top floor. Roman's jaw almost dropped when he saw that the button he had pressed was for the floor 1000. 

"One thousand floors," he breathed out in awe. 

Virgil snorted. "You Humans sure are impressed by simple things, aren't you?"

Roman frowned at him and huffed, crossing his arms. "Look, I'm having a strange day and this only adds to the strangeness. I just gotta talk to these, uh, The Lives and all of this will be done and over with."

The look Virgil pinned him with was both sad and amused at the same time.

The elevator door opened and they walked out into an office that did not live up to Roman's expectations. It was small and papers were thrown everywhere, with no sense of organization anywhere to be seen. An old radio from the 1920s was blaring out ' _ The Schuyler Sisters _ ' from on top of a filing cabinet and slumped over a desk was a Chinese man who had on a suit and tie, looking like was the employee of some company where he never got out from behind his desk. He had shoulder-length hair tied into a hair bun with blue streaks mixed in there. And when he saw Roman and Virgil, he groaned in annoyance. 

"Virgil, you have got to be kidding me," he sighed, rubbing at his bright green eyes and nearly dislodging his glasses in the process. He gestured around at the room and the many papers strewed about. "I'm busy and I can't entertain another one of your Humans who want to bargain for their lives back."

Virgil grinned, skipping forward and sitting on the man's desk, ignoring the squawk from the man. "Sorry, Logan! Roman here wanted to talk to you and-"

"Find a way to get back to life, yes," he sighed, sitting back in his seat. Logan gave Roman a tired frown and gestured to the chair in front of him. "Sit then. Name, please."

Roman sat down in the chair and looked Logan over with a suspicious frown. "You're The Lives? Like, really? A man sitting at a desk?"

The look that he got from Logan was dry and annoyed. "First off, I am not a man. I am one of the physical manifestations of life. Second off, I am one of the Lives. The other one is galavanting around the earth and ignoring our duties, as per usual."

"Um, sorry, didn't mean to assume anything," Roman said, holding his hands up peacefully. He glanced at Virgil. "Uh, I-"

"Pronouns don't matter to me," Virgil snickered, waving his hand at him. "I'm not Human, Princey. I'm freaking Death. Use whatever pronouns you want."

"And while I am not male, I would prefer if you would use the pronouns he and him for me," Logan said briskly. "Now, your name, please. I am very busy and I would like to get this done as soon as possible."

Roman scowled. This one sure was sensitive, wasn't he? "Roman Sanders-Prince. I'm-"

"Twenty-one years old," Logan said, picking up a typewriter, one that looked super old, and started to click away at it. "Your parents died when you were nineteen and you have two brothers, Patton and Remus. Remus is your younger twin by two minutes." He ripped the paper off of the typewriter and handed it to Roman who took it with shaky fingers. It was covered with what looked like the details of Roman's entire life. "And you died in gang-related violence. I'm sorry, there is no way that I can bring you back to life."

Roman stared at the piece of paper and let out a shaky breath. "But... I can't... there has to be some way..."

Logan sighed and clasped his hands. "Roman, I apologize. If you were still clinging to your body and if your body wasn't so damaged then I may have been able to help you but as it is, there is nothing that I can do. The only thing to do now is to go with Virgil and do what he says."

"That can't just be it," Roman cried, jerking to his feet. "It can't be! I have brothers, I can't just leave them!" He turned to Virgil who was watching with sad eyes. "You said that there were two Lives. I want to talk to the other one."

Virgil just shrugged. "Rem won't talk to you. She's travelling the world right now. She doesn't like talking to people who are, um, doing this. Bargaining for their lives or still in denial and such."

Roman stared at the two of them in horror, tears building in his eyes. "This can't just be it," he whispered. "It can't be. I... I want my brothers."

Logan sighed. "Your brothers are currently with the police. Virgil can take you there if you want to see them."

Roman nodded, feeling lightheaded. "I want to go see them," he said softly, turning to Virgil. "I just... I want..."

Virgil just nodded and snapped his fingers.

* * *

"So, what was with that pink tie anyway?"

Roman blinked at Virgil in numb confusion. Virgil had dropped the two a few blocks from the alley Roman had... died in and was now walking there. "It's Wednesday," he said numbly. "On Wednesdays we wear pink. It's some stupid thing my twin and I do together."

Virgil nodded and grinned. "Mean Girls. Nice." He glanced up at him. "So, while we're walking, let's talk options."

"Again?"

"We haven't talked about them yet, Princey. But yeah, you gotta hear them. Can't run away from this." Virgil looked up at the sky, the sun setting and painting the sky in pink and orange. He sighed. "I think this is my least favourite part of this whole job," he whispered. "Having to explain all of this stuff."

Roman frowned, looking down at him. Seeing Virgil like this, slumped over and looking sad and small, it was hard to remember that he was Death. While before he looked old and wise, now he looked like a middle schooler from the school Patton taught at. "Explain what stuff?"

Virgil sighed. "You have two options," he said softly. "But it won't really matter in the end. Eventually, you'll end up in the Afterlife. Everyone does." He held up two fingers. "You can either go with me after this. I'll take you to the Afterlife and you'll figure shit out over there." He let one finger fall and then smiled tiredly. "Or you'll stay here."

"I can stay," Roman asked softly. "Really?"

"Oh, no one will see you," Virgil said immediately. "You won't be able to interact with anyone or anything. But you'll be watching over your loved ones for as long as you want. I'll come and get you when you're ready." He smiled, the smile looking both amused and wry. "A bunch of people choose that option but not always for the right reasons. Some are just scared."

Roman tilted his head. "Scared? Of what? Of the Afterlife?"

Virgil nodded and chuckled. "Yeah. The ones who did shitty things, super-shitty things, in life and try to outrun their consequences. That's when I really get to shine and drag those creeps to get exactly what they deserve."

Roman swallowed. "And... what do I deserve?"

Virgil shrugged. "That's not up to me to decide. I just bring you to the Afterlife. After that? My job's done, dude." He nodded up ahead where police cars and two very familiar people were standing. "But, you'll get there eventually. For now, let's focus on your brothers, okay?"

* * *

Remus wasn't crying.

Patton was wailing, sobbing into his hands as a police officer quietly tried to comfort him. But Remus was just staring at his dead brother on the ground, hands gripping his bright pink shirt tightly. Blood was staining his shoes from the puddle around them and police officers were trying to usher him back. But Remus wouldn't budge, just staring at his twin with dead eyes.

The sight made Roman want to turn away but he couldn't. He could only stare at his brothers and watch their lives be flipped upside down.

Virgil stayed at his side silently, not saying a single word. But he didn't move from Roman's side, silently supporting him as they watched this.

Finally, Roman said softly, "I can't leave them. Not like this." He swallowed and finally looked down at his body, at the bloody remains. It made his stomach turn and he finally had to look away. "I can't just leave them."

Virgil nodded and squeezed his arm. "I'll be back when you're ready, Roman."

And just like that, he was gone.

* * *

Roman yawned, rubbing at his eyes from where he was sitting at the kitchen table. "Patton, Big brother, your pancakes are smelling as wonderful as always!" He watched his brother cook on the stove and smiled softly. "I'm glad you've started cooking again, Patty."

It had been a year to the day since Roman had died and Roman was still hanging around. 

For a long time, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to. Watching his brothers go through the worst times in their lives. Being able to do nothing about it. Just watching. He had no idea how many he thought about being able to call for Virgil to just come and get him. 

It was so hard. Roman wasn't able to do a single thing but just watch Patton cry and stay in bed for days at a time. Watch Remus scream and trash his room and break down. There was not a single thing Roman could do. But he stayed with them. He couldn't leave them.

And slowly, he watched them get better. Roman gave Patton a one-man standing ovation when he got out of bed for the first time, even if it was just to go shower. He beamed at Remus when his twin slowly cleaned up the ruins of this room. 

There were times when they went back a few steps and Roman just softly talk to them, even if they couldn't hear. He told them that it was okay and that he was still so proud of them. He knew that they were doing their best.

And this? Patton making breakfast again? It made Roman's heart sing.

"Remus," Patton called, flipping pancakes and glancing over to the bowl filled with fresh whipped cream. "Remus, I got breakfast ready! Come on, it's the first day of College today!" He glanced over to a picture taped to the fridge of Remus and Roman on the first day of Kindergarten, both smiling at the camera with a sad smile.

Roman smiled softly at his older brother. "Still can't believe Remus' going to College," he hummed softly. "That's pretty awesome, isn't it, Patty?"

As always, Patton did not indicate that he had heard him. Roman sighed and rubbed his eyes. When Remus came pounding down the stairs, Roman looked up only for his jaw to go slack. Patton's breath hitched and he whispered, "Remus?"

Remus tilted his chin up and adjusted the bright, obnoxious pink shirt he was wearing. "It's Wednesday," he said with a firm nod. He gave Patton a crooked grin and shrugged. "On Wednesdays we wear pink."

There was a long moment of silence where Patton was staring at him, tears pooling in his eyes, and Roman beaming at him. Suddenly, Patton dropped his spatula and walked over to him, pulling Remus into a tight hug. Remus hugged him back, burying his face into his brother's shoulder.

Roman sighed proudly, leaning back into his seat. Fuck, he was so proud of them. There was a gust of air next to him and he turned, only to see Virgil's face smirking inches from him. He screeched, scrambling from his seat and landing on the kitchen floor. "Don't do that!"

Virgil snickered, shaking his hand in amusement. "Dude, I'm older than dirt. I got to get my laughs somewhere." He softened and glanced over to Roman's brothers. "They seem good. Better."

"Yeah," Roman said softly, smiling at them. He sighed and nodded. He looked up at Death and smiled crookedly. "I... I think I'm ready to go now."

"Yeah, I know. Why do you think I'm here?" Virgil grinned back at him, offering his hand. "Let's go."

And Roman took his hand. 


End file.
